


Two Blushing Pilgrims

by hxwell



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Awkward Flirting, Awkward Kissing, Falling In Love, Fluff, M/M, References to Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet References, how do you tag on ao3??, i'm so new to this god, this entire fic is awkward
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-03-19 03:44:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3595080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hxwell/pseuds/hxwell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Our teacher ships the two of us and we're reading Romeo and Juliet" au//Dan owns 7 pairs of the same jeans and high-fives everyone he sees while Phil listens to Neutral Milk Hotel and paints in his spare time</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is my first time putting fics on a non-tumblr fanfic site so bear with me. (on there i'm howellphans). I'm debating whether to continue this or not, but let me know what you think! I'm trying to break the "one of them is popular and the other is a loner" high school au trope and just have a fun happy friendship high school thing. Also special thanks to flawlesster on tumblr for betaing this section for me!

Phil barely took out his headphones in time to hear his English teacher call his name. “Are you Phillip Lester?” she said. Even though it was his first day as well, he could tell she was new to the school - his teacher was young, probably in her mid-20s, with a bright complexion and full cheeks. She was also still smiling, unlike many of the teachers he had already met that day.  
“Yeah,” he nodded with a half smile. “It’s Phil, though.”  
“Okay then Phil,” she said, still grinning. He couldn’t tell if he was creeped out or impressed. “You’re going to be right here in the front. And welcome to St. Stephen’s, by the way.” She pointed to a desk in the front of the classroom, the desk closest to the window in the front row. He brought his backpack over, swinging it around the front of the desk. It had a heart scratched into the corner with initials he couldn’t read. Wonderful. He put his earbuds back in and stared out the window at the giant trees outside the school’s new entrance - the bell hadn’t rung yet, so he assumed he didn’t have to listen.  
The day had been exhausting - his new high school was better than he thought it would be, but it was still a high school. The principal had greeted him with unwavering, unnatural cheerfulness, telling him “he’d fit right in” as she handed him a schedule and motioned him into the arms of some girl who he was supposed to shadow. She obviously didn’t care about the school in the slightest, but was also funny about it, making the tour very bearable. All of his teachers had been grade-A average, and he had made small talk with the people sitting around him, all very respectable, all “potential friendships,” but nothing spectacular had happened. And he didn’t think anything would in last period English, either.  
About a minute before the bell, the girl he had shadowed walked in, taking a seat right behind him and looking surprised. “So you’re the one who’s taking my old seat?” she asked as Phil tried to remember her name. “Whatever, I’m cool with it. How has your day been?”  
“Alright,” he said, shrugging.  
“Well that’s probably the best you’re going to get all year, just saying.”  
Phil laughed. “You make it sound so bad, my old school was worse…”   
“Okay, it’s fine, I guess. But it’s still school. At least all of the teachers are still pitying you today.”   
“Yeah, I guess - Ellen,” Phil blurted out, finally remembering her name. Ellen looked at him funny, and he blushed before turning around in his seat, slinking down slightly. He heard Ellen call out to someone - but his music drowned out the name. A girl and a guy walked towards them, the guy wearing a red hoodie and black jeans, the girl a white American Eagle sweater and light denim skinny jeans. The boy had bright, wide eyes, a lanky figure, and surprisingly, dimples. The girl had black hair in curls, an apparent-but-pretty amount of blush on, and huge eyelashes. They walked over to their corner of the room, and Phil turned slightly towards them. The girl sat down next to Ellen, and the boy looked at Ellen, looking down at her jokingly, his hands on his hips. “Castle,” he said, “Why aren’t you sitting next to me anymore?”  
“Are you blind?” Ellen snapped back lightly. “The new kid’s here. He’s cool - not as cool as me, but he’s alright.”  
Phil was still registering the fact that apparently him and Ellen were on the ‘fake-insult’ friendship stage when the boy sat down next to him, smoothly sliding into the shaky desk. “I’m Dan,” he said.  
“Phil.”  
“Cool.”  
“Yeah. And sorry, I hate to ask, but - Castle?” Phil was surprised with himself - he rarely started talking to people so easily.  
“No, it’s cool. There used to be two girls called Ellen in this class. So we used last names to make it easier.”  
“The other Ellen got mono.” The other girl had piped up, in a chirpy voice. “Also, hi Phil. I’m Annie.” Phil smiled at her and she smiled back, before jumping right back into the conversation. “I mean, it’s weird not having her around, and she was really nice, but wasn’t other Ellen a bit loud?”  
“At least you didn’t have to sit next to her,” Ellen added.  
“God, you guys are so harsh,” Dan added, laughing. Phil started laughing a little too.  
Phil saw the teacher start to pass out some sort of worksheet, and knew he should probably be paying attention, considering it was his first day. But he stayed turned around towards Ellen and Annie, glancing towards Dan every once in a while, and started to wonder if making friends would really be as awful as it usually was.

 

 

When Dan was five minutes late to English class after spending too much time trying to toss his lunch into the trashcan at lunch, he took two steps in before stopping to a halt.  
“We changed seats, Dan,” Ms. Elliot said, gesturing him over towards an empty desk in the middle of the room. “You’re over here, next to Megan.” Dan watched everyone stare at him as he moved through the mass of people, while silently thanking some god for making Ms. Elliot ignore that he was late. His desk was almost exactly in the middle of the room, and he fell into it.  
Dan sighed slightly - Ellen was all the way in the back corner of the room, and Annie was sitting with her. At least they changed seats often, so Dan decided to make the best of whoever was around him. Megan, a quieter girl who only occasionally acknowledged his existence, was on the left of him, but Ms. Elliot had conveniently left out who was on his right side. He looked over, and saw Phil on the other side. He was still wearing his space coat, and was pouring over what looked like poetry. Phil noticed Dan, looked up, and gave a small wave. Dan smiled.  
“Hey, what are the odds we’re next to each other twice?” Dan asked. He knew it was awkward, but he wanted to say something to Phil.  
“Yeah,” Phil said, laughing slightly. “Like, that’s good, right?”  
“Yeah, totally.” Dan felt his cheeks turning slightly red, but he could notice Phil’s turning a bright shade of pink. He tried to think of something quickly. “I can’t believe you’re still wearing that space coat to school. It’s almost April.”  
Too harsh? Dan clenched his teeth. But Phil laughed as well. “It’s cool! You have to admit it’s cool.”  
“You look like an astronaut.”  
“Yeah, but like a really rad astronaut. A radstronaut.”  
“Oh my god Phil.” Dan wanted to keep talking, but then Ms. Elliot started talking. He was half listening, but had to look like he was actually paying attention.  
It had been two weeks since Phil had come to their school, and he seemed pretty cool, in Dan’s opinion. Sure, he was a little awkward, and didn’t know anything about the people in their grade yet (understandably so), but he seemed nice. He was always listening to music - Dan wondered what could possibly be that good. He made a mental note to ask Phil about his music taste before tuning back into class.  
“…it’s seen as almost an earlier version of Romeo and Juliet, so it’ll be a good intro to this unit. It’s a shorter story, so I’ll pass out the text, and then we’ll have a discussion about it tomorrow. Any questions?”  
Dan leaned over to Phil. “What are we reading? I zoned out.”  
“Pyramus and Thisbe,” Phil barely mouthed. Dan nodded, before raising his hand.  
“Yes, Dan?”  
“Are we going to be acting for this one like we did for The Crucible?”  
“Yes, we are, which should hopefully be fun.” Dan smiled back at his teacher, but was really slightly annoyed. He loved to act, and always had one of the bigger comic roles in the school productions, but that was exactly it - no one got into it when they had to act out plays, so Dan felt awkward being the only one actually in character. Because of that, he ended up standing in front of the class and reading with no emotion, and almost felt more awkward than he did reading in character. It was always some sort of disaster.  
He looked over at Phil, who was staring up at Ms. Elliot, listening intently. Maybe this time would be different.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you guys enjoy the thing! shout out to my real life friend maddy (idk her ao3 oops) for looking this chapter over for me ^_^ also this is turning into an actual description of my english class, which probably isn't good...(how do you do chapter notes? this is all so new to me)

“Her whip of cricket’s bone, the lash of film - wait, sorry, what does that mean?” 

“Just keep trying to read it, Sam,” Ms. Elliot said, taking a deep breath. “We’ll analyze the speech later.” 

Dan sat on the edge of the classroom, his hands pulling on his cheeks as he refused to hide his boredom. Phil still sat next to him, quietly reading along with the text, even though they had switched seats again. Now the desks were pulled into a ring around the room, so the actors could “act” in the middle. Dan and Phil sat on the side near the windows of the ring, except now Phil was on the left side of Dan, to at least make it look like they weren’t sitting together again. Neither of them had attempted to bring it up to Ms. Elliot. Dan rolled his eyes at Ellen, who was playing Benvolio and impatiently watching Sam struggle through his speech.

“O-e-r court-e-eres knees, that-that dream on curtsies straight..”

Dan hadn’t thought acting would be this painful - and it wasn’t like they got to pick the parts. Ms. Elliot had a hat sitting ominously at the front of the room, where she would draw out names randomly at the start of class to say who was playing which part. Dan’s name hadn’t been drawn yet - and neither had Phil’s. Ellen was doing her part currently, and Annie had done a fairly impressive job in the sword fight in the first scene. That was the only good thing about the arrangement - Ms. Elliot had minored in theater, and tried to follow the stage directions as fully as they could in a classroom. So Annie had dramatically ran across the room, hitting their friend Jake with a plastic sword. It was pretty fun to watch.

“Of breches, am-busk-a-does, Spanish blades…” Even Phil had started tapping his foot impatiently.

“Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!” Adri, who was playing Romeo shouted to signify the end of Sam’s speech, and she seemed to really mean it. The entire class breathed a wordless sigh of relief. Sam was just about to start on his second bit of dialogue when the bell rang, and everyone started to rush out.

“How about you all just read the rest of the scene for homework,” Ms. Elliot shouted at them as they packed their bags. “We’ll discuss it and then read Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting in class tomorrow!”

 

Phil looked around the crowded, poorly-lit cafeteria for somewhere to eat. He held his small paper bag, filled with two apples and a granola bar, looking for some of the kids from band who usually let him sit with them. They were nowhere to be found, but he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye waving towards him. It was Dan and Annie - were they really waving him over? He looked back at them, slightly shocked. He couldn’t believe that they would actually want him over there, but he found himself moving into an empty chair at the end of their table. “Hey Phil!” Annie chirped. He saw that Ellen and a couple other kids from his English class were nearby.

“Is it really okay if I sit with you guys?” He felt dumb saying it out loud.

“Dude, of course,” Dan laughed. “We all usually sit over here since we have English next period, so we can all head over together. Also I don’t hate these guys.”

“Yeah, but we hate you Dan,” Ellen snapped.

“Shut up,” Dan smirked as Ellen rolled her eyes.

They all silently ate for a minute until Ellen broke the silence. “Are you guys ready for hardcore Romeo and Juliet makeout sessions next period?” she asked.

“Do they really makeout in this scene?” Annie asked.

“Yeah, twice.”

“It’s first on line 106,” Phil added, before quickly realizing that they would think he was weird. Instead, they all looked over impressed.

“You’ve read it before?” Dan asked.

“Yeah, last summer,” Phil blushed.

Dan smiled. “Of course you’ve read Shakespeare. Why am I not surprised?”

“What, and you haven’t?” Phil joked back. Dan had that quality around him - he was so natural, so easy to talk to.

“You see Phil, I play this thing called football, and it sort of takes up my time…” 

“Oh my god, shut up Dan, you’re not even on Varsity,” Ellen laughed. “You’re just lazy. Anyways, what I was trying to ask you guys is who do you think should be our class Romeo and Juliet? I think Dan and I would be wonderful - obviously Dan as Juliet and me as Romeo.” They fist bumped across the table.

“Drama kids for life!” Dan smiled.

“Incredibly queer drama kids for life,” Ellen added. Phil looked at them both in surprise.

“Wait, what?” He still hadn’t learned all of their friend group’s secrets - after all, he had only known them for about a month. “I mean, you don’t have to tell me if it’s a secret or something.”

“No, I’m like, a level 10 lesbian,” Ellen said with a straight face. “I mean, I don’t try to make a big confessional deal about it. I always think it’s kind of obvious - I’m almost a walking stereotype.”

“Wait, and Dan?” Phil asked, before mentally hitting himself in the head. That wasn’t the kind of thing you just ask someone about! He found himself flinching out of embarrassment.

“That’s a story for another day,” Dan said, looking back and forth at everyone, his cheeks slightly red, his dimples showing. Annie, who had been quiet for a while, suddenly gasped.

“Wait guys,” she asked. “What about Dan and Phil?”

“What?” Phil laughed.

“Come on,” she said, like it was obvious. “You guys have sat together for like four seat changes. It’s obviously meant to be.” Phil couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not.

“Phil,” Dan said, staring at him. Phil found his cheeks turning even redder.

“Yes?”

“Real talk. Which one of us would be Romeo or Juliet?”

“I don’t know.” Phil could barely make out coherent thoughts.

“The correct answer is me as Romeo,” he said, building up fake confidence. “Because I’m just such a player.”

“Isn’t Romeo like the opposite of a player?” Annie added.

“So that makes even more sense,” Ellen continued, and they all laughed before the conversation switched to whether or not Amir was dating anyone and Annie’s evil science teacher and what they saw on Buzzfeed the night before and how awkward it was to pass people on the wrong side in the hallway. But Phil swore Dan’s cheeks stayed that same crimson color, and that he kept looking over at Phil more than necessary.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't updated in forever! (No excuse, unfortunately - I've just been lazy.) I'm going away for vacation for a week, so I wanted to get at least something up before I left. How are you guys liking it so far? Any comments would be very much appreciated, thank you all for continuing to read ^_^  
> Also - I have a mix that I listen to while writing, that's basically what I think Phil in this AU would have on his iPod. Would anyone be interested in listening to that? (spoilers - it's just a ton of indie folk.)

Romeo and Juliet were the only two characters Ms. Elliot had left to cast for the next scene. Her hand lingered over the small basket filled with rainbow slips of paper before grabbing one as the entire class watched in anticipation. She smiled. “Looks like Dan will be our Romeo for this scene,” she grinned, and everyone looked over at Dan with various reactions. Some of them gave him dumb grins, some rolled their eyes, and Phil smiled, blushing slightly.

“I guess you finally get to act,” he whispered.

“Yeah,” Dan said, slightly sarcastic. “Wonderful.”

“And for our Juliet…” Ms. Elliot pulled another piece of paper out of the basket and cleared her throat. “We’ll have Phil.”

The first face Dan saw was Annie’s, across the room from him, as she mouthed a large _Oh my god._ Then Ellen, who was laughing her head off. Then he finally turned to Phil, who was looking down at his desk, playing with his hands. Phil looked up at Dan reluctantly. “Do you think she’s gonna make us…” 

“Guess we’re gonna have to find out,” Dan said, looking away. The two gave half-hearted smiles before Ms. Elliot clapped her hands and started talking like nothing had happened.

“Well, that all sounds good, so if all of our actors could come to the back of the classroom to grab costumes and if all of our non-actors could get out their analysis questions and books and open to page 64, that would be wonderful.” Dan slid out of his chair and went to follow Phil to the costume chest, before Ms. Elliot pulled him over to the side. He looked around, to make sure no one was watching, and went over to her.

“Hi Dan,” she started. “So, I realize that this is the scene where Romeo and Juliet kiss for the first time, and one of the important points is that Romeo reaches out to kiss Juliet, and not the other way around. So, and I’m really glad you got this part, because I know you’re a strong actor, I was wondering if you would be able to do that.”

“Um-“ Did he say no? Was he supposed to say no? How important was this? Could he stage kiss it? How did Phil feel about this? “-yeah. Sure. That sounds fine.”

The words slipped out, and he gulped, Ms. Elliot breathing a sigh of relief. “That’s great. Thank you so much Dan. It can be quick - I don’t want to shock Phil too much."

Dan was handed a pair of sunglasses for his “party mask” and was forced into the center of the circle by the whirlwind of other actors. He found himself on one edge of the desk ring, with Phil in the opposite corner. He was about to kiss Phil Lester. He couldn’t say he was sad about that fact, but he was terrified. It was going to ruin everything - you can’t just kiss your friend and expect everything to be okay afterwards. It was just his English class, but it was the most nervous Dan had ever been about acting.

A page and a half in, Dan’s first lines came up. “What lady is that which doth enrich the hand of yonder knight?” he started, trying to keep his voice steady.

“I know not, sir,” his friend Leo responded, who was lucky enough to be the Servingman and have about three lines. Dan had to launch into his speech about how beautiful Juliet - about how beautiful Phil -was, and he continued in his semi-even tone, before it finally hit him. _Stop,_ he whispered to himself. _This means nothing. You are acting. You are playing a character. This is not you talking. This is Romeo. And even then - it’s fucking English class._ He took a deep breath, finished his lines, and zoned out as Tybalt and Capulet started to talk.

“Dan?” he heard Ms. Elliot saying. He snapped back into reality.

“Sorry, what?” There was some scattered laughter.

“Since Tybalt has just exited, the scene jumps to Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting, so we need you and Phil standing here in the middle.” He shook his head, and saw Phil standing in the middle of the ring of chairs. All of the other actors were lazily sitting on desks around the outside. Dan thought he was going to throw up. Phil was wearing the small crown that had been designated for Juliet. He looked kind of adorable in it. Dan shuffled into the middle as Phil stifled a laugh, and Leo pushed him forward jokingly.

Dan looked down, reading the stage directions - _(taking JULIET’s hand)._ He figured he was about to kiss Phil, so he might as well start with a little physical contact. He grabbed Phil’s wrist, feeling Phil’s jacket underneath his fingertips. He started his lines, trying to stay in character. “If I profane with my unworthiest hand, this holy shrine, this gentle sin is this: my lips, two - blushing pilgrims, ready stand, to smooth that rough touch - with a tender kiss.”

He felt his cheeks turning redder and redder. Phil was still laughing slightly. “Good pilgrim,” he replied, and was he - being cheeky about it? “You do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this, for saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmer’s kiss.” Dan was unconsciously rubbing his fingers over the soft material of Phil’s jacket.

“Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?” He started to smile a bit too.

“Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer,” Phil smirked. Dan was starting to get more comfortable, seeing that Phil seemed to be enjoying himself. Phil wouldn’t hate him for the kiss. It would all be okay.

“O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do,” Dan said, with new energy, his hand moving closer and closer to Phil’s fingertips. “They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.”

“Saint do not move, though grant for prayer’s sake.” Phil started to back down a bit, but Dan couldn’t tell if he was imagining it or not.

“Then - then move not, while my - while my prayer’s effect - I take.” He figured Phil would say something, give him a little encouragement, but Phil just bit his lip and looked at the ground. Dan stared over at Ms. Elliot like a deer in the headlights. She motioned slightly, smiling a bit, and Dan gulped.

He closed his eyes, and quickly leaned in towards Phil, hoping he wasn’t backing away. He found Phil’s lips, touched them for a brief second with his own, and then jerked back, opening his eyes, letting go of Phil’s sweatshirt, and bracing for outrage. Instead he got Phil, staring at him, eyes wide open, gulping slightly. The entire class was silent.

“Well, now that we’ve gotten through a solid amount of this scene, let’s stop here for today and do some analysis. We’ll finish this scene on Monday, with the same actors,” Ms. Elliot said, oblivious to the awkward energy in the room. All of the actors sat down, and Dan and Phil silently took their seats next to each other, not saying a word.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oH MY GOD I'M SORRY I DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT THIS I PROMISE  
> the actual worst combination ever of having a massive research paper to work on/having complete utter writer's block hit me over the past month or so, and i'm super sorry about that. hopefully this chapter makes it a little better - it's short but eventful ^_^  
> also as a mini apology, next chapter i will have a not only "music phil would listen to in this au" playlist but a "music dan would listen to in this au" playlist! so look forward to that :)  
> it will come sooner next time but for now enjoy please tell me if you liked it

Dan didn’t say a single word to Phil for the next two weeks, and for the first time in his life, he wasn’t sure where to start. The only time he ever saw Phil was in English class, and Ms. Elliot had switched the seats again, putting them on opposite sides of the circle of desks. Phil didn’t come to eat lunch with Dan and his friends any more, and Dan had no idea where Phil had possibly gone. He tried to forget about it all, go back to Annie and Ellen and all his other friends, like it was before Phil showed up at their school, but he couldn’t stop thinking about him.

It wasn’t like he hadn’t fallen in love with boys before - he just never thought he would have feelings for a boy like Phil. He could make out with straight guys in locker rooms after he promised not to tell anyone about it. He could make anyone believe he was in love with them when he was covered in stage makeup and reading from a script. Dan could go on vacation, make everyone around him want him more than anything, and then disappear forever. But Phil? Phil didn’t seem to get sucked up into his circle of charisma. Phil just seemed content with Dan. Phil didn’t need to have relationships to make himself feel better - Phil had paintings and his headphones and that glint in his eyes that seemed to contain galaxies. And all Dan had was a jacket that didn’t fit and a group of loud friends. Lovable loud friends, but Dan was sure that Phil had met many more interesting people in his life then he would ever even lay eyes on.

He tried to forget about Phil, but when Dan saw him wander into Starbucks and he was still wearing that dumb space jacket, he felt all of his longing come back at once. He at least wanted to be friends with Phil again. He patiently watched Phil get his drink from a corner booth - he had ordered a grande caramel macchiato, but it wasn’t like Dan was paying attention - and Dan stood up abruptly, blocking Phil’s path to the door. “Hey, can we talk for a minute? I mean, unless you’re meeting someone or have plans or are busy then it’s totally fine we can talk later or like whenever’s convenient honestly,” Dan rambled. He was at Starbucks to meet up with Annie so they could work on their science project, but she was late and he figured he could apologize to Phil quickly before she showed up.

“No, I wasn’t going anywhere,” Phil said, avoiding Dan’s eyes. “Just getting some coffee for myself.”

“So can we talk?”

“Yeah, that would be good.” They sat down on a nearby couch, a solid foot of space between the two of them. They sat in silence before Dan finally got the courage to pipe up.

“I just wanted to say that I’m really sorry about the whole English class thing,” he said. “Ms. Elliot wanted me to do it to demonstrate symbolism or something. I should have just like, high-fived you or something.”

“I really don’t care about the English class thing,” Phil replied. Neither of them could work up the courage to say “the English class kiss.”

“Then why have you been ignoring me?” Dan said, before stopping himself. “I mean - you can still sit at our lunch table and talk to us in English. We miss hanging out with you.” 

“I just kind assume that I’m a burden or something,” Phil shrugged. “And I don’t think your friends would really want me to reenter after - you know. Like, how do you explain that? Sure, she told you to do it, but like - we actually did it.”

“They’re so over it,” Dan continued. “Honestly. I just need to know if you’re over it.”

“Like I said, I’m over the fact that I - that we kissed. The thing that bothers me is that you didn’t tell me first.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t, then.”

“Apology accepted.” Dan sat silently, trying to think of a reply, staring at Phil’s legs. He assumed Phil would just leave, but they stayed on the couch, still far apart, suspended in silence. He knew the right thing to do would just be to leave it at that, but he couldn’t stop himself.

“You know, I really should have told you about it first, but would it really have made that much of a difference? I thought it would make things more awkward if I told you about it beforehand. If we kissed quickly, we could just get it over with without all that weird buildup of preparing ourselves for the thing.” 

“I assumed Ms. Elliot would make us kiss. I knew it was coming.” Phil breathed out quickly. Dan could see him blushing.

“Then why did it bother you so much, if you were ready for it too?” Dan asked, with genuine concern. He didn’t want Phil to think he was mad at him - that would just make the situation so much worse.

“I - it’s stupid, you’ll want nothing to do with me.”

“No, go on.” Dan felt himself slowly inching closer to Phil.

“I - If you told me beforehand, we could have done it right.”

“What do you mean?”  And for a rare second, Dan was caught by surprise as Phil leaned in and kissed him. Phil was in control, gently pressing his lips against Dan’s as they moved in unison. Phil went to put his hand on Dan’s cheek before he pulled back quickly, leaving Dan leaning in.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve asked too, is this okay?” Dan simply nodded quickly, his mouth open in blissful surprise. Phil leaned back in and they were almost sitting on top of each other on the Starbucks couch, and Dan put his hands on Phil’s back as he continued to let Phil control the kiss. He never wanted it to stop, and almost forgot who he was or what he was supposed to do when he heard a familiar female voice.

“Dan? Phil?” As they pulled away to see Annie staring at them, slightly shocked, Dan felt his face go pale, his arms still around Phil’s shoulder blades.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again guys! I'm uploading this on a train currently (isn't technology incredible?). I spent the weekend at bookcon which was awesome, so talk to me about that if you are a massive reading nerd (I mean you're on AO3 so I assume that's true). I saw a little advertisement for Dan and Phil's book at Penguin/Random House and ngl, I felt like a proud mother. Now that that off topic stuff is out of the way, enjoy the chapter - sorry it's short, but it's mainly a transition chapter. And the playlists will be coming next time I am not on a train!

“Did I interrupt something?” Annie hadn’t even finished her sentence before Phil was nowhere in sight.

“No,” Dan said, blushing and slightly agitated. There was absolutely no something between him and Phil. He wanted a something, and in the moment the something felt all so real, but Annie had brought him quickly back to reality, where somethings were nothings. He was back in the normal world, where he had a massive science project due in two days and he hadn’t even started. No time for romance here. “Should we get started?”

“Not until you tell me what’s going on with you and Phil.” Annie said, sitting where Phil was a few seconds ago. She felt miles farther away on the couch than Phil did.

“I told you, nothing,” he sighed. “Literally nothing.”

“Then what was all that?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Dan replied.

“I feel like I should worry about it. I’m your friend, I want to make sure if you’re doing stuff you’re doing it for all the right reasons.”

“But I’m not doing stuff with Phil,” Dan explained. “He pulled me in and we kissed and he asked me if it was okay and I said yes and I meant it,” he continued, letting it all come out at once. He assumed if he just told her the truth, maybe she would let it go. “But that was it.”

“So it was all like, his idea?” Annie asked.

“Yeah, but like, Phil’s not a creep,” he quickly replied. “It’s not the kind of thing we should abandon him for, because I think it was just him letting a lot of feelings out after not talking to us for a while, so like, we should keep hanging out again so that doesn’t happen again and-“

“Dan, chill.” Annie put a hand on his shoulder before he explained himself into a sweat. “I was just wondering what was going on because I thought like - someone else set you guys up.”

“Wait, but who?” Dan couldn’t think of a single friend he and Phil had in common that wasn’t Annie or Ellen. It obviously wasn’t Annie, and he didn’t put it past Ellen to do something like that. He waited patiently as Annie bit her lip.  
“I feel super super weird telling you this - like, it’s a dumb theory I have and I’m pretty sure I’m totally wrong.”

“I’m sure it’s fine, just let it out, okay?”

“Well - remember when you guys got chosen to do the party scene in front of the class?”

“Of course not,” Dan sarcastically replied.

“Dumb question, sorry. But anyways, I was sitting near the front, next to Ms. Elliot, right? And when she was pulling out names, she pulled out your name first, that was fine. But then - she didn’t pull out Phil’s name as Juliet as first.” 

“So why did she call him?”  
“I don’t know! All I saw was that she pulled out Derek’s slip of paper and then called Phil’s name. It was probably just an accident - but I’m dumb and just assumed that she was trying to set you guys up, like, even more.”

“Oh my god Annie, that’s so creepy,” Dan nervously laughed. “Do you really think naive Ms. Elliot would try to set kids up? Sometimes I can’ t with your mind.”

“Yeah, sorry,” she laughed, blushing. “It was dumb. Sorry about that, I should just mind my own business next time. Should we get started on graphing our data?”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Dan said, getting out his workbook and colored pencils. But he found three million different types of uncomfortable sitting inside his stomach.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah sorry guys! guess who didn't die yay~ basically finals week happened and it knocked me out for a month or so. but i'm back! and i'll try to have the last chapter up (i believe there will be one more after this one? maybe more i'm not sure) before i go away again next month! enjoy xx (also-i guarantee you a happy ending. keep that in mind.)  
> also - here are the long awaited playlists!! here's phil's: http://8tracks.com/pavlovers/high-school-phil-lester and here's dan's: http://8tracks.com/pavlovers/high-school-dan-howell  
> they are v different from one another so hopefully one matches your music taste ^_^

“Today’s going to be a pretty relaxed class - you guys are just going to get into partners and do the theme analysis packet that I handed out at the beginning of class as a wrap-up for the novel. Anything you don’t finish is homework for Wednesday,” Ms. Elliot finished. Phil was relieved when Dan made eye contact with him across the room first. Phil motioned him over to his desk, and Dan walked over, dragging just his chair across the room.

“You’re just going to do the packet tonight?” Phil asked. Not the best way to start flirting, but he could try. He felt awful that he had left Dan at Starbucks so quickly with no explanation, but it was also the only thing he could have done. Phil felt like he was always a burden - always barging in on other’s plans, not feeling wanted by anyone in particular. Sunday in Starbucks was a prime example - Annie and Dan just wanted to hang out, and Phil had to ruin it all by making out with Dan. Typical. As Phil left Starbucks, the still-chilly spring air spiraling around him, he missed his old town for the first time in a month. He wanted a chance to start all over and maybe tread lighter, make himself more invisible. He was perfectly happy - and used to - being alone; why did he even bother making friends when he was bound to mess up sometime in the future? 

But maybe Dan would be different. If the kiss was any indication, maybe Dan would be the first person to have over 1000 Instagram followers and actually care about Phil. He was in too deep to fix his mess, so he was willing to try something new. He was willing to make this relationship work.

“Yeah,” Dan nodded and Phil snapped back into reality. “Listen, I -“ Dan started before he realized that Phil was trying to say something too. “No, sorry, you go first.”

“Oh, okay. I just wanted to apologize for Sunday night, because-“

“It’s okay, I shouldn’t have come up to you in the first place,” Dan started to apologize. “I thought I could make everything better if I just talked to you, but obviously it made everything a lot worse. I’m sure our friendship could have continued if we just like, forgot about it, you know?” 

“A lot worse…friendship…alright,” Phil breathed, looking deflated. He stared down at his hands in his lap, then up at the ceiling, trying to avoid Dan’s gaze. There went his plan for their conversation. 

“Did I say something?” Dan asked, and Phil looked over at Dan, Dan’s wide brown eyes looking genuinely concerned. 

“No, it’s fine. I just-“ Phil couldn’t admit it. He felt dumb.

“You just what?”

“I was going to apologize that I left so quickly on Sunday. Then I wanted to ask you if you wanted to maybe see Jurassic World over the weekend, and also mention that I didn’t have your number yet,” Phil blushed. He felt sick to his stomach admitting it all out loud. “But that’s not what you want to hear, I guess.” 

“Oh, Phil, I’m sorry.” They sat in silence for a couple minutes, Dan staring off into space, Phil pretending to work on his theme analysis packet. Phil wanted to move across the room, maybe even to a different classroom or to a different continent, but he felt frozen in space. It felt like an eternity, the room uncomfortably warm and brightly-lit around him. Everyone else was laughing, talking, only occasionally working, and they sat in silence.

Ms. Elliot was wandering around the room to check in with all the groups, and Phil saw Dan tense up as she came over to their desk. “Hi Dan! Hi Phil! Just wanted to check in and see if you had any questions about-“

“No, we’re good.” Dan quietly interrupted her and she nodded before walking away. Dan started to tap his foot restlessly before finally talking again.

“Listen, Phil, I understand why you want this to work out,” he started, slightly exasperated. “I - I want it to work out too, I promise you. I think you're absolutely fantastic and I want what we felt on Sunday night to last too.”

Phil felt a sort of glow in his stomach, but he remained skeptical. “Then why did you say everything went wrong?” 

“This - this isn’t us, I guess. If we hadn’t had to do that scene together and kiss in class, what do you think would be happening?”

“I mean, you never know-“ Phil tried to protest, but Dan was right. There was nothing else romantically connecting them except for English class. 

“It’s just - and please don’t take this wrong way, like I said, you’re fantastic - what other times have you seen relationships like me and you actually happen and work out? The obnoxious jock and the shy kid? It’s like something out of a film. Go back even farther - I’m not sure that we would have even been friends if Ellen hadn’t been your tour guide. It just feels really really weird to me that I would get with someone because our English teacher had us sit next to each other and then kiss in front of the entire class. That’s not real. When we grow up, you’re going to have an art installation with some gorgeous boyfriend that’s not me, and I’m going to have a stereotypical white chick wife and work at Tesco’s. That’s just how we end up, people like us, and I don’t want it to be true and - oh shit, are you crying?”

Phil nodded through his tears, trying to get words out. He felt his throat start to close up and his hands start to shake. Thankfully no one around them noticed. Dan put a hand on Phil’s shoulder. There was no romance about any of it - Dan just wanted to comfort Phil. “Listen, I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean that in a bad way.”

“You’re absolutely right, though,” Phil cried, and he did agree with Dan wholeheartedly. “It’s just - I wanted it so bad to be real. I thought about it long and hard enough that it started to feel real. But you’re right - how could it have been real? How could we have been that lucky?”

“Yeah,” Dan replied, and he pinched himself in the thigh to prevent his eyes from watering. “How could we have been that lucky?”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my god i'm sorry this took so long i'm an awful person who's been v busy/lazy  
> but enjoy!!! this chapter is a little different, it was fun to write and i hope you enjoy it ^_^ special bonus news: the last chapter (!!!!!) is probably going to come out in just a little bit! i'm going to camp on thursday and didn't want to leave you guys hanging for a month :)  
> also s/o to solidphanfic on tumblr for posting this fic on there as a recommended one! this is my first fic ever that's gotten like any sort of attention, and it literally made my day to see them review it, so thank you very much ^_^

Dan walked out of school about a half hour after the bell had rung, the sun heavy on his back. He took a deep breath. The year was finally over - he could put all the drama in the past. He was going to do the local three-week summer theatre program, then he was off to Italy for a week with his family before getting back in time for football conditioning. He would recharge, refresh, and reinvent himself. All of his old activities would drown out the recent memories. He would come back to school in September, receive a brand new class schedule with brand new people, and carry on with his life. 

He was about to leave campus when he heard a noise behind him. “Dan!” He turned around - Ellen and Annie were running towards him, Ellen waving something in her hand. 

“What do you guys need?” he asked as they got closer to him.

“You left this in the English room,” Ellen panted. Annie nodded.

“I swore I turned mine in already,” he replied, gesturing at the tattered copy of Romeo and Juliet in Ellen’s hand.

“Well, that would explain why we found this sitting on an empty shelf, because every one else took theirs home,” Ellen continued.

“But I swear I heard that we had to bring them in-“

“Nope. Take yours, I don’t want to deal with it.” She thrusted the book into his hand. “Now sorry, we gotta run-“  
“-we’re meeting people for lunch to celebrate the end of the school year,” Annie quickly added, and Ellen smiled.

“Yeah, that. Bye!”

“Wait, are you sure-“ They were gone before Dan could protest. He looked at the book and tossed it into his bag.

 

He didn’t find it again until he was cleaning out his backpack a week later. The book was buried beneath old worksheets and tests with mediocre grades. He flipped through the pages quickly, dust coming off of the edges. He was about to throw it out when he noticed something on a page - was that highlighting? Dan definitely did not do any form of required annotation in his copy of the book. He flipped to another page - there was pink highlighting on this one. And then he flipped again - this one had orange highlighting. And notes. Scribbled, shorthand notes in the margins that were in handwriting way too neat and small to be his own. 

 

ROMEO: He jests at scars that never felt a wound. (maybe never felt relationship/never been in love until now)

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and  Juliet (dan) is the sun.

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, (me-envious of popularity, r-envious of paris?)

Who is already sick and pale with grief,

That thou her maid art far more fair than she: (pretty true)

Be not her maid, since she is envious;

Her vestal livery is but sick and green (?????)

And none but fools do wear it (why would anyone but a fool be in love with d/j; bc they know how it’ll end?); cast it off.

It is my lady, O, it is my love! (i’m looking across the room and he is definitely not annotating his book rn)

O, that she knew she were! (!!!!!!!! same!!!!!)

She speaks yet she says nothing: what of that? (says nothing of their love? bc that’s relevant) 

Her eye discourses; I will answer it.

I am too bold (i am the exact opposite my friend), 'tis not to me she speaks:

Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, (HOT FEMALE FRIENDS)

Having some business, do entreat her eyes

To twinkle in their spheres till they return.

What if her eyes were there, they in her head?

The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,

As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven (specific rhyme scheme during this part? ask ms. e)

Would through the airy region stream so bright

That birds would sing (does he do musical theatre? i feel like he does just spoken theater but imagine that) and think it were not night.

See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!

O, that I were a glove upon that hand,

That I might touch that cheek! (s/o to shakespeare for being relatable)

 

Dan looked over the page, before noticing a note wedged in between the word definitions on the opposite page. (i’ve read shakespeare a million times, but it took the person who would never read shakespeare to show me what it really means.)

He turned the page quickly - there was a blank page for notes, and it was filled with what looked like a poem.

 

there is something on a stone pedestal

that shines greater than i’ll ever will

and it looks at me for three seconds

and i think that i’m different

(and how i want to be different-)

but statues can be admired by 

so many

chiseled to a formula, drawing you closer

some things 

are just meant

to be admired

but stone carvers didn’t account for

the statue staring back at you

 

Dan wanted to continue reading, feeling himself blushing, feeling flattered and attracted like he never had before. He felt like more - more than just his list of activities he could rattle off, more than just a cardboard cutout of a person. The words were in his bloodstream - the only thing that kept him from continuing was seeing a small, neon-colored note sticking out of the back.

 

Annie told me how dumb you’re being so we “stole” this to remind you of what really matters. Basically: go get him, asshole. -Ellen

His address is 72 Lawrence Avenue (this feels really creepy but it’s for a good cause PHAN FOR LIFE yes we made up that ship name yes we’re bad friends this was all ellen’s idea i’m not a very good actor) -annie

PS-You owe the school 15.95 for the book. You’ll thank us later. -Ellen

 

He closed the book and opened up Maps on his phone.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!!!!! i bring to y'all the last chapter!! (told you it would be up quickly)  
>  i just wanted to say a quick thank you to all of you for being so supportive of this fic. i've never written a fic that's gotten this much attention, and you've all made me very very very happy. so thanks for reading/leaving kudos/commenting/bookmarking!!  
> if you want to talk to me (plz), i'm arcticked on tumblr, and although it's mainly an art/aesthetic blog now, i'm much more active on there and would love to continue talking to you all.  
> i will see you all around <3 and enjoy!

Dan looked up at the house in front of him. It was a fairly average, one story home, with a small brick path leading up to the well-lit front door. It was dark out, about 9:30 pm, so Dan could see the lights on in the front room. He was about to walk up to the front door when he felt a surge of panic in his chest. He quickly ran to the left of the house, into a small grove of trees. His palms were sweaty and he had lost his train of thought, but he started to make his way towards the backyard.

It was a simple, fenced-in backyard - it had a small patio with lawn chairs and a small swimming pool in the back. He heard crickets everywhere, who were relishing in the heat of the summer night. He also heard something else near the house, and emerged from the trees, covered in pine needles. 

The room facing the backyard’s was Phil’s. He was hearing Phil’s music - some distant yet loud guitar and horn-sounding noise. He looked into the window, and felt his heart jump. Phil was sitting at a desk, which was covered in various sheets of lined paper. He was writing something under the bright light of the desk lamp. Even knowing Phil’s track record, Dan couldn’t imagine that he was already doing summer assignments. Dan concluded that he must be writing more poetry. The thought of it made him nervous, and even though Phil still hadn’t noticed that Dan was creepily looking into his windowsill, he dropped to the ground, hitting the damp grass with a loud thud. He was lying there, a little dazed, a little nervous, when he heard the window open.

Phil’s head poked out, and he looked at Dan, lying on the ground outside his window. At first he was shocked, but then he saw something in Dan’s hand - his tattered copy of Romeo and Juliet. He had millions of questions, but those could wait. “You know,” he blushed, “when I write poetry about people they usually don't read it. And they definitely don’t show up at my windowsill.”

“Well I’m honored I’m the first,” Dan said, smiling with relief. Phil held out a hand, pulling Dan up to his feet.

“I was about to invite you inside but you’re all muddy,” Phil said with a slight smirk. “And my mom is a bit of a neat freak.”

“Glad my hygiene is what your mom would be the most concerned about after seeing that you had magically pulled a boy into your room,” Dan smiled. “But I guess if I can’t come inside, you’re going to have to come out here.” Before Phil could protest, Dan had grabbed him by the hand and was pulling him out of the window, causing him to fall into Dan’s chest. He brushed himself off and stood back up.

“Listen, I’m sorry I was so weird about all of this,” Phil started. “It’s just - I guess I’ve never really opened up to anyone before. I couldn’t imagine that someone would ever really want to be around me, like willingly. Especially not someone like you.”

“Are you kidding me? This is not your fault,” Dan started. “I’m the one who was too afraid to try something new. But this?” he said, gesturing to the book. “This is something that I never even imagined someone would do for me. I’m used to simply hooking up with football players to help them explore their sexuality - I’m not used to somebody actually sharing feelings in return. I said before that I’m not the type of person who gets with people who write poetry and listen to - well, whatever this music is-“  
“It’s Neutral Milk Hotel,” Phil smiled. “But carry on. I’m really enjoying this compliment fest. Like I said, not a regular occurrence for me.”

“Yeah, I’m not the type of person who is supposed to care about things. But Phil? You make me willing to try.” 

Phil grabbed Dan and pulled him in, and then they were kissing again. Phil’s hands were on Dan’s cheeks, Dan’s hands around Phil’s waist. There was a surge of electricity between the two of them, a warmth greater than the sticky summer air. Phil pulled away, grinning. 

“So are we going to give this a try?” Dan asked.

“I’ve never been more ready.”

“Hey Phil?”

“Yeah?”

“Just don’t fake your death and leave a dagger conveniently by your side in your fake tomb, okay?”

Phil burst out laughing. “I can’t believe you actually read the whole book.”


End file.
